Stop Motion

Dalton had to get a couple of fillings on Wednesday so we took the whole day off from homeschooling.  Dental work is rough on my kiddos.  All of them but especially Dalton.  He threw up because his gag reflex is that strong. :(

We decided to have a relaxing fun day.  And part of it was spent making these very short stop motion movies:

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Homeschooling?!

This is exactly from my Facebook post about it.



Notice the pajamas?


Yes, we are *currently* homeschooling the boys. Read on if you’d like to hear more. I thought I’d put something here based on the number of messages I’ve received about it. Warning: this could get lengthy—even for me.


  So, Jason has always been into the idea of trying homeschooling. I have always been terrified at the thought. Till recently. Don’t worry about us: nothing huge or horrible suddenly happened at the boys’ school, we just came to the conclusion their school was no longer the right fit *FOR US*. God must’ve been working on me because not only was I suddenly willing to try this homeschooling business, I was actually *wanting* to. I was still very sad (sobbing on and off for days) to leave the school and people—the community!-- we were very much a part of for the last 3 years but homeschooling was calling.





The state of Colorado says they require 2 weeks notice of your “intent to homeschool”. We turned in the form on a Friday and the district said they’d have our approval to us (and our school!) on the Wednesday just 3 business days later. Ummmmm, eeeeeek! So, the following Monday, we told the teachers, admin, and our boys that their last day would be Tuesday, February 4th. I was initially counting on having through their Valentine’s parties to figure out our plans for curriculum and such.


Didn’t happen.



Their last day at Westgate Community School. 2/4/14



Walking in on their very last day.





Autumn helping us shovel on that snowy day while they had their last day of school.


I found this in Dalton's school journal once they were home. The boys were both quite excited by the idea of homeschooling, to be honest. They were both VERY happy at our school, NEVER complained about going, had great friends and (Dalton especially) had wonderful teachers and were making decent progress academically. But, as I said, they still both loved the idea of homeschooling. They were excited they’d get to spend more time with one another. Our boys are truly the best of friends and it totally warms my heart that they wanted to spend more time together. (Each day when I'd pick them up, they'd totally ignore me and my questions about their day in order to reconnect once they were together again.) They were also excited that we could study the Bible as part of school now.


Autumn is still going to her Christian Montessori program 3 mornings a week. One thing that has been hard for me this last week and a half is getting used to how much less time I have with my girlie. I am enjoying the extra time with my boys and all my babies together, it was just such a sudden change I apparently wasn’t quite ready for. Autumn is doing fine with all of it, though. It’s *me* having the harder time.


I am unsure what is in store for us long-term, to be perfectly honest. While Jason has always wanted me to give homeschooling a shot, he’s also counted on me getting a job and contributing financially to the family once all three were in school full time. We’re open to all sorts of ideas, however. We’ll just wait and see. We know QUITE a few people who homeschool--both locally and out of state--and I’ve reached out to many of them over the last couple of weeks and I’m certain I’ll continue to. So many of them are life-long homeschoolers (some were even homeschooled themselves!) and right now I’m finding I’m quite traditional. My mom, sister, and soooooo many of my close friends are public school teachers….it is hard for me to get away from that mindset as we begin our homeschooling journey but these folks are all helping me on my way!

Lunches

Lunches this week:

 

Monday the boys requested their "usual" lunch staples.  Vanilla yogurt, a homemade whole wheat roll, and fruit for Easton.  A PBJ and chips and fruit for Dalton.  As a special first day of school treat, each boy got an organic (but still full of sugar) peanut butter cup.  Dalton made sure to thank me for it after school.  Sweet boy.

 

Tuesday Dalton got a hummus and cheese wrap, cherry tomatoes, and strawberries with a box of lemonade for another special treat (usually they only have water).  Easton had a buttered whole wheat tortilla, cheddar cheese triangles (he didn't eat too many, he said they were frozen), a hard boiled egg, strawberries and blueberries and some homemade whole wheat cheese crackers.  He got an organic apple juice as his special drink.





Wednesday when I woke up I made spaghetti for the boys lunches.  I preheated their Thermoses while it cooked and made "ska-betty" for Dalton and buttered noodles for Easton plus whole wheat bread and fruit.  Some whole wheat molasses sweetened ginger snaps continuing their first days of school treats.  Most of Dalton's ska-betty came back home uneaten and a lot of Easton's noodles as well.  I think they got congeal?  I dunno.  I guess we'll save noodles for dinner at home?

Thursday the boys got homemade cheese pizza, cooked broccoli and fruit.  The kids have microwaves in their classrooms so they took out their fruit and heated up their pizza and broccoli.  Every bite was eaten right up!  A hit!

Friday each boy got an organic PB chocolate blend sandwich, cheese "smart puffs" and fruit. 

The First Week of 1st and 3rd Grade

Monday the 12th was the first day of school for the boys.  Easton was practically as excited as he is at Christmas and therefore was up bright and early to get ready.  So cute. 

Poor Jason had to report for jury duty that morning and had to miss out on the festivities.  He helped me get the kids up and at 'em and left as we went to the porch to do our traditional first day of school pictures:


Kindergarten was half day for Dalton last year so he's got a lunch box in his new backpack for the first time as well.  We actually don't have to/get to buy school supplies at our school but instead pay hefty per student fee at the beginning of the year which covers all their school supplies, technology fees (each kid has a laptop at school), all field trips and guest speakers and what have you.  Anyway, I always loved school supply shopping as a kid and miss it now.  So, every year each kid unnecessarily gets a new backpack.  This year Easton chose a light-up Superman backpack and Dalton chose Skylanders:


And then we were off!



We arrived at the school and headed in with the masses.  The first day is the only day we're allowed to escort the kids inside so everyone does.  Autumn too.  With her paper towel roll "sword" which she wielded in the face of the principal on our way in.  Eek!


First stop on our way in the door was Dalton's classroom.  Which was Easton's classroom last year.  And Dalton chose the same lil cubby that Easton had last year:



Mrs. H snapped a picture of us (for the end-of-year montages I make, I'm sure) and he found a spot at a table with some of his favorite friends from last year (four girls) and we bid him adieu:


Next it was off to the 3-4 pod and Easton's new classroom.  He waltzed right in:


They don't have cubbies but rather this way too tall, yet way too small rolling metal cart that doesn't have enough backpack hooks and the coat rack is out of the reach of children.  This should be interesting.  One boy "M" was shouting, "Eastie! Eastie!" and pulled over a chair right next to him for Easton to sit in.  Only problem is Easton doesn't not quite return this friend's enthusiasm.  He can be quite intense.  Furthermore, Easton's best friend Z is in the same class and Easton would, understandably, rather sit with him.  I felt awful.  We need to work on some advanced social skills like, "I want to sit with Z but you're welcome to come join us at this table" or whatever.  He worked on his name tag and stayed where he was.  Poor Sort of Friend M :(


Autumn and I bid Easton farewell as well and then spent the next hour and a half talking to Sort of Friend M's mom in the parking lot.  She is one of my closest friends lately and the mother of Autumn's best friend.  Those two factors are the only reason Easton and Sort of Friend M ever began a "friendship" in the first place, prior to this year they'd never had a class together and were only ever around one another when the rest of us were around each other. 

After our long chat, Autumn and I headed home and Jason showed up not too long after we did.  He was dismissed from his civic duty and took the rest of the day [mostly] off.  He cleaned the garage, we went looking for window coverings and tried to spy on the boys at recess.  They were supposed to have recess together but only Dalton was out.  Hmmmm. 

When we picked the boys up after school it seemed they'd had a fairly good day.  Learning more in the car on the way home, Dalton was on the verge of tears telling us about how boring it was having to listen for so long to all the rules.  Plus he's afraid of anyone yelling or "firm toning" him and his teacher definitely makes use of the firm tone.  It's kinda just how she talks.  Hope it works out okay for our sensitive guy.  And the kids don't get any recesses together after all.  That's not how it was last year nor how it's "supposed" to be at our school.  Dalton has looked forward to lunch and recess with Easton for years. I'm going to have to ask why it changed because we're all bummed about that.

On Tuesday Jason took the boys to school:


And Autumn and I headed to a couple of grocery stores:

Around lunch time we met up with some of our friends at the library.  They were all friends we made last year due to Dalton's half day kindergarten.  Now that all those former half day kinder kids are in full day school, the moms and little siblings (all 3.5-4) still like to get together.  So there were 4 moms and 4 preschoolers and the kids just played and played until it was time to get the big kids. 

When I picked the boys up, Easton was upset.  He reported his best friend Z told him he didn't want to be friends anymore and was referring to him as his "ex friend" and such.  I asked Easton what part he played in Z coming to this conclusion and he told me that he'd said that the 12 Greek gods that this boy believes in are stupid.  :/  Oh buddy.  That's not how we like to show God's love.  Granted, this friend was frustratingly trying to change game rules when it was Easton's turn and then chose another friend over Easton so Easton and Sort of Friend M talked about their shared belief in the one true God and Easton told Sort of Friend M that Best Friend Z believes in the Greek gods and they had a laugh at his expense.  Ugh, Easton!! 

That mom texted me as soon as school was over and we talked about each kids' side of the story a bit but we were also at Autumn's back to school afternoon and making our hour long drive down to Easton's dry land training for diving.  Lots to deal with. 

That night as we were getting ready for bed I found Easton sending an iMessage to the pal to apologize:

And we got the response that he did feel better now and "I'm sorry I didn't want to play with you, and only J_____.  And I forgive you."  Hopefully we'd learned something there.


On Wednesday Autumn and I ran the boys up to school in our jammies. 


Dalton was having a hard morning and did not want to go to school. :(  That makes me sad.  It's a big adjustment after a fun summer to go to full day school where they're really not learning much yet.  He did alright, though.


When we got home I took a shower and Autumn had a bath.  My view from my shower:


Then we did a little back to school shopping for her at Kohl's and headed to hip hop.  It was the last day.  She chose a little hat to go with her outfit to look more hip hoppy.  So cute.


Showing some of her freestyle moves:



She did the class with her best friend MJ.  MJ is Sort of Friend M's littlest sister.


After hip hop we all (me, Autumn, MJ, MJ's mom) drove over to a rec center with a fun indoor play area to join the same friends from the library the day before.  Well, 3/4 of them.  Again, they played while the moms (and one dad) visited all the way until it was time to get the big kids again. 


We hung out with a few friends playing after school.  We often do this when the weather is nice and I walk up to get the kids as opposed to going through the car line.


On Thursday, Autumn and I watched Beauty and the Beast and then headed to the "Pixie Skate" at our roller rink. 


It's a special session for kids under 6 to play games and have a snack and get comfortable on skates.  No grown ups allowed on the rink.  We joined a different friend of ours for that.  It's weird, the other little girl is not even a month younger than Autumn but she's going to be a year behind her in school!  Autumn did so great out there and happily skated the whole hour and a half (the little girl we went with did not):


We hung out with friends after pick up at school again.  Easton teased Best Friend Z again. :( This time for peeing on the playground.  Easton was horrified by this.  Where we live, no one ever just whips it out in the back yard or in public like a dog around here.  I could see it being a peemergency and finding a more out of the way spot to take care of business if there's no bathroom available (the school was locked), but dude, not right where everyone plays.  So, while Easton definitely should never call anyone names, I couldn't fault him for having an issue with the incident.  And I could totally hear myself calling one of my kids "Pee Pee Pants" or something.  Great example, huh? :)  Anyway, the other mom took it upon herself to correct Easton for his name calling and needing to respect others (hope she talked to her son too, though!).  I totally agree E needs to show respect and it needed to be addressed but dude, if I'm right there it really bugs me when other people try to deal with my kids that way.  It's one thing if I'm not around, of course, but if I'm there.....  That's always been a pet peeve of mine.  I may be alone in this, I dunno... 

On Friday, Autumn and I took the boys to school again.  I had a fundraising meeting I needed to go to right after drop off and Autumn had to come along.  She entertained herself with snacks and the Leapster under a desk.


After we left the meeting we stopped by a friend's house to pick up their son for a playdate.  They're moving this weekend and we offered to have him over to keep him out of the way so Mom could do some intense packing.  Autumn had been so excited he was coming over.  Apparently he'd been very excited too. Well, we got there and the little guy refused to come with us.  :(  Autumn was so upset.  And it's hard not to take it personally too, you know?  But, whatever.  So she was sad and we came home without the friend she'd been expecting so I tried to make it extra fun for her. 

Instead she helped me harvest a few tomatoes in the garden:


And we jumped on the trampoline together:



And we baked some banana bread together:




After our morning at home, we made a quick run up to the grocery store for a  few things, came home and whipped up some lunch to eat in the car and then headed over to the boys' school for the afternoon.  You see, despite having a school full of gifted children, we don't tend to score well on the state standardized tests (they start in 3rd grade).  Our school doesn't "teach to the test" by any means, like so many schools do.  And furthermore, we don't put much stock in "standard" anything at our school.  We have lots of creative learners and twice exceptional kids at our school and, well, most of us at our school don't put a lot of value on standardized tests.  However, last year's scores just came in and our school had the highest rate of improvement out of the entire school district.  So, they planned a big school-wide celebration because, even though my boys didn't take the tests last year, it is a community effort with the younger kids making encouraging signs to hang up around the school for the test takers and they had to be super quiet in the halls or give up afternoon specials so the specials teachers could administer tests. 

So, the school rented a couple of bouncy castles and provided free popcorn and popsicles and the much older kids did face painting for the entire afternoon.  Families were welcome to join in the fun so Autumn and I headed up.  The boys didn't hang out with us much at all, they were having too much fun on their own, which is fine by me.  So, I went around with Autumn who had a couple of popsicles and jumped in a bounce house, ate popcorn under a tree with MJ:


And got a lame kitty painted on her face:

We signed the boys out of school about 15 minutes early and headed home with a successful first week of school under our belts!  That night we watched "James and the Giant Peach" for a Family Movie Night.  We had listened to the audio book over the summer and we then like to watch the movie.  We recently did the same thing with "Matilda".  It's fun to point out the inconsistencies however, my crazy kids so far prefer the movie version to the books.  Hmmmm. 

Anyway, here's to a successful first week and many more to follow!
 

Last Day of Summer Break

I moved the Disneyland recaps to the days they actually happened back in April 27-May 3.

I don't know what Phineas and Ferb mean with "104 days of Summer Vacation".  This year, my boys had 66.  That's it. We've got 2 hours till Back to School night tonight where we find out each boy's teacher and classmates. 

We've had a full summer.  After last summer I said we weren't going to do that again but alas, we didn't have a lot of "free" time for things like play dates and trips to the zoo or museum.  We took in a few movies: Monsters University, Despicable Me 2, Turbo, and Planes plus second run movies like Charlotte's Web, Ice Age 4 and Megamind.  We made it to Gramoo's pool several times.  We met up with friends at the library a few times (mostly mine, Dalton's and Autumn's friends--poor Easton).  We made it to one amusement park and one water park with passes the kids earned from summer reading programs.  They did read quite a bit and with our long drives to swimming, diving, and Gramoo's we discovered the joy of audio books.  It was a half an hour each way to swimming lessons and one of the diving locations is an hour's drive each way!  We listened to quite a few Roald Dahl books on CD.  They are all narrated by British actors so that proves a bit challenging at times. :)  As Easton will continue with diving, we'll have to find more audio books to check out.  Two hours in the car every Tuesday is a lot!!!

For scheduled activities, Autumn took a hip hop class with her best friend MJ.  Easton continued with diving lessons twice a week and he did a video game programming camp with a friend from school.  He still had drum lessons once a week at the beginning of the summer as well.  Dalton and Autumn both did two sessions of swimming lessons.  The kids did two different Vacation Bible Schools. 

Given that our Disneyland trip was in early May we didn't go anywhere at all this summer.  Well, the kids spent one night at Gramoo's in June.  At least we had a visit from G-ma and July!  Plus, the boys have a one night camping trip planned in a couple of weekends. 

I can't believe they're about to start 3rd grade and 1st grade on Monday.  I can't believe Dalton will be in school all day now and I'll have to pack 2 lunches every morning.  Autumn starts Pre-K the following Monday.  She'll be gone 3 mornings a week and before you wonder what all I'm going to do with myself, most likely two of those mornings will be spent volunteering in the boys' literacy classes (like I did last year) and the other kidless morning will be probably spent at the grocery store.

Easton will continue with diving and drums, Dalton will be starting piano (preparing to move to his instrument of choice: guitar) and he actually is interested in doing a hip hop class, and Autumn will be continuing with dance.  Even though we'll stay quite busy, it'll be nice to get back into more of a routine. 

And before I go, Easton's teacher and I worked together once again on individual montages for each of her students (meaning she gives me all the pictures and the song idea).  Chances are good she'll put Dalton in her class for the next two years as well and I'll be making them yet again!  But, anyway, here's Easton's 2nd grade year if you want to see....

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"Real Food Recipe": Coconut Chocolate Chip Breakfast Cookies

These are so good! We have them a lot...perhaps too often where we're going to get sick of them! I started with this recipe from the Jewish Hostess here and doubled it and adapted it to a coconutty option. Mmmmm....coconut.

Coconut Chocolate Chip Breakfast Cookies
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup oats
1 cup coconut (shredded, unsweetened)
1 tsp. baking powder (technically, this is a bit processed)
1 tsp. baking soda
2 Tbsp. ground flaxseed
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup coconut butter (you find it near the PB and other nut butters)
1/2 cup grain-sweetened chocolate chips (like the Sunspire brand)


Mix all together and roll into balls about 1.5" in diameter and place on a prepared baking sheet. I usually use a cookie sheet lined with parchment.

I like to flatten them a bit after that. Because there's not a lot of fat in these, they don't spread all that much on their own when you bake them.

Bake at 350. My daughter and I like them best after just 10 minutes and I leave the sheet in for a total of 16 minutes for the rest of the family. If you try them, I'd love to know what you think! Enjoy!

"Real Food Recipe" Muffin Monday: PB Chocolate Chip Muffins

Years ago, Easton "made up" the idea for peanut butter chocolate chip tomato garlic muffins. Well, all together that was obviously disgusting but with the first two, he was on to something. I searched for a recipe and this one quickly became a family favorite. In fact, it's the only muffin recipe all 5 of us enjoy. I've since adapted that recipe to work for us and our new cleaner eating (and my busy/lazy lifestyle). The original recipe calls for a painstaking process of sifting the dry ingredients together and adding in the wet. Beating the eggs in a separate bowl. Yada yada yada. Ain't nobody got time for that! I dump it all in a big bowl all at once and hit it with my hand held electric mixer. Boom! (It's just as good, I tried that long way the first time.)

Anyway, here's the recipe:

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
2 Tbsp. melted butter (I use unsalted)
1/2 cup honey (pure, local honey, if you can!)
1/2 cup milk 2/3 cup peanut butter (straight up natural PB)
2/3 cup grain-sweetened chocolate chips (like Sunspire)

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare muffin tins. I use paper cups. This recipe gives me 12 regular muffins and 12 mini muffins. Beat all ingredients together with an electric mixer and spoon into muffin cups. I put in the regular sized muffins in the oven first for about 5 minutes while I fill the mini muffin tray and clean up. Then I add the mini muffins in with their regular sized friends and bake for 15-17 minutes longer. So, 20-22 minutes total on the regular ones. Enjoy!

My oh-so-helpful notes to you:
When making the transition to our cleaner eating, we did it slowly--just like when I'd introduce the kids to whole milk from breast milk....you know, a quarter of the milk in their cup was whole, the rest Mommy's. The next time a third or a half. So I did the same for transitioning our family to whole grains. In the case of these muffins, I did a 3rd of the flour as whole wheat, then 2/3rd, then all of it. No one ever complained. Maybe I could've gone all the way right off the bat but even I was a little unsure of how I'd like it. Plus I had some white flour to use up.

I usually melt the butter in the microwave in a 1/2 cup measuring cup. After I add it to the bowl, I use that same "greased" measuring cup to measure out the honey for the recipe.

If you're not using a natural peanut butter where the ingredients is more than just: peanuts, then be really careful about the sugar and salt already in your PB before adding the "extra" the recipe calls for.

When making these muffins I usually double the recipe....sometimes I make a whole extra pan and freeze the uncooked batter in their cups and cover with foil.

 
As we usually do "Muffin Monday", I'll pull it out of the freezer on Sunday night and stick it in the fridge to thaw till Monday morning. Then I just uncover and bake as usual. Sure saves time on busy school mornings!

Or, sometimes while making a batch, I might make a "muffin mix" for next time with just the dry ingredients. I store it in the pantry with the remaining "wet" ingredients I'll need to add taped to the top.

Saves a little time and I don't miss the prepackaged Betty Crocker things quite as much.

We love to eat the big muffins on Mondays and then on Tuesdays I'll often send a few leftover mini muffins to school with the boys for their morning snack.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes--Clean(er) Eating

The comment from Kelly yesterday was a perfect idea for another blog topic: our diet change.

I made quite a few new friends this year thanks to Dalton being in half day kindergarten. Standing around with the other parents waiting for their half-dayers, a lot of us really bonded. Anyway, one of these moms (my now good friend) sells Juice Plus and is fairly into nutrition. (We don't take Juice Plus, however.) I always thought we had a fairly decent diet but she gave me a CD to listen to featuring one of my favorite trusted sources: Dr. Sears.

He got to talking about processed foods and other topics which got me thinking right around the same time as a lot of my Facebook friends started "liking" the 100 Days of Real Food blog. At first I was annoyed, like, "what's not real about what I'm eating?" Turns out.... a lot!

My wheels got to turnin' and I started looking into it all a bit more. I read Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food" and we started talking about making some changes to consuming a whole lot less processed foods. Jason was totally on board but sort of confused about what we were going to eat. I told him we'd eat the same stuff as before, just healthier versions: whole grains, organic options, more things made from scratch. Like, one of our favorites was veggie fajitas. But instead we'd do whole wheat tortillas and organic veggies and organic black beans. Instead of his trusty "Lean Pockets" which he brought to work several times a week I made my own pizza pockets from scratch with whole grain dough, cheese I grated myself, organic tomato sauce, fresh organic produce "toppings". In lieu of the frozen bean and cheese burritos he brought on other days, again, I made my own with dried beans I fixed in the Crock Pot and whole grain tortillas. We often had a lot of leftovers for him to bring to work as well. He rarely ate out anyway.

On New Year's Day, Jason and I sat down to watch Food, Inc. on Netflix and committed to no longer getting disgusting, mass-produced meats. We've always eaten meatless at least a few times a week but we were going to eat even less meat...more of a "side" and less the center of a meal when we did have it. Any meat we consumed was going to be organic and local (when possible) from then on. Grass fed beef, free range chickens, no hormones, no antibiotics....that sort of thing.

We started sort of slowly, we used up a few things we still had in the pantry, packed up and donated others. I got to spending a LOT more time in my kitchen and Jason did some more reading on his own. One of the ideas that particularly resonated with him was Dr. McDougall's "Starch Solution". It goes against so many of the "high protein, low carb" fads lately and instead is actually very high carb and says people don't need as much protein as America makes us think we do. McDougall's diet is also free of animal proteins....so it's basically vegan, but honey is okay. It's not about animal rights for him (the poor, exploited bees) but just no animal protein. No meat, no eggs, no dairy (no fun ;) ). Not even seafood which, if you know J, is a huge shocker! He took it that extra step from what we'd agreed on when we first began this change.

As you might guess, Jason's diet is not for me. Not for the kids either. However, I am the family chef and I'm not about to be making all sorts of things J won't eat so I had him take over the meal planning. I still buy everything and make it, but, as far as "what's for dinner?" that's on him now. So we never have meat. I'm okay with that. I never loved meat but I am a dairy person, fo' sho'! Now I eat it at breakfast or lunch or when we go out.

The kids and I maintain more of a whole, real foods kind of approach. Less "science"....so, when Jason's recipes call for "egg replacer" or "soy milk" I refuse to use them. If I bake muffins for our family breakfast, I use the milk and eggs it calls for and Jason eats it anyway. He doesn't really want the fake, lab produced stuff either. But, when possible, he avoids all such things. It's working for him. He was never overweight to begin with but lost 15 pounds (on his 5' 6" frame!) through diet alone. He is super skinny. With high carbs, people! :) He does supplement with a B-12 vitamin now that he's avoiding animal products.

If the kids are at a birthday party or something, I don't make a big deal about what they're eating....pizza with white flour? Fine. Birthday cake with artificial flavors and colors? Whatevs. I don't want to be "that mom" or for my kids to feel weird. I don't want to give them a complex. But they are learning about making good choices. It helps that so many of our friends are somewhat like-minded and bring "raspberry bars" for birthday treats or at least make their cakes from scratch with organic ingredients.

I took the kids out for dinner recently and Easton was so excited he was going to get to have chicken. He read the grilled chicken option versus the chicken tenders and asked which was healthier and then chose that....with a side of steamed broccoli! And he ate every bite.

I showed Mr. Map-Maker some really cute cupcakes that looked like globes and Autumn saw them and reminded me, "Moooooommmm...artificial colors!" :)

We were reading a label at the grocery store and I asked myself, "Sugar? Why'd they have to put sugar in this?" and Autumn went, "Sugar...blech!" Someone overheard and asked me how I got my kids to feel that way. ;)

Basically we're now a mostly meat-free household. I've made the kids hamburgers on occasion with acceptable beef and made homemade whole grain, baked chicken nuggets a couple of times. Grilled chicken too. But Jason and I don't eat it. I don't even miss it, honestly. I do believe humans are made to eat meat...I just don't. My kids can but it gets expensive to get the quality stuff we now insist on. So they eat it much much less.

We do only whole grains when I bake at home. No refined sugar...just local honey and pure maple syrup. Not all our produce is local and organic but we try to go that route where possible. We joined a CSA for the summer and get loads of fresh veggies from a local farm. We've always had local organic (whole!) milk delivered. We looked into local restaurants that meet our "requirements" for whole grain options and ideally local ingredients when possible and we pretty much only go those places if we eat out. And we just try to do minimally processed foods: no refined grains, no refined sugars especially high fructose corn syrup, nothing artificial like colors or flavors, nothing that isn't a recognizable food on an ingredients list (which hopefully isn't too long a list in the first place). We're certainly not perfect and I make more exceptions than I might ideally like but we're certainly improving.

In addition to the weight Jason's lost, Easton has calmed down a lot. He's always been an energetic boy and we love that about him, but he often could have really dramatic mood swings due to low blood sugar and he was often one of the more disruptive kids in school (just talks a lot). Without knowing that we'd made these changes to our diet at the beginning of this calendar year, E's teachers noticed he'd mellowed and matured. Impressive! He's still very energetic...that's who he is, I just like that he's less disruptive. He focuses better. Also, I don't think Easton's been sick at all since we've changed our diets. Like, not even a cold! You can't help but think it's somewhat related.

I'll likely be sharing quite a few of our favorite recipes and ideas for what we actually eat for those interested.

Christmas In July (Again)---Elfin' Around

I've been getting encouragement and compliments lately on my "good writing skills". Really? Me? Anyway, that prompted me to look back at some old blog posts....I don't know that I'm a good writer, more like I had good material. These kids are a hoot! But reading the old stories which I have no recollection of whatsoever in my present memories made me a little sad that so much has gone unblogged all these years. I switched to sharing mostly things about the kids on Facebook which is great and all and means it's really only my friends (and not those who unfriended me) seeing what we're up to but it's not the same as being able to click back through my old posts.

One of the things that kept me from blogging as much in the past was my frustration with uploading pictures. That's still an issue but I set it aside for today to do an Elf on the Shelf post. It's an easy place to start...if "starting" what it is I'm doing. I'm not sure...

Anyway....

I bring you, "Wizby: Year 4" (Here is Year 1, Year 2, and Year 3, by the way).

This was our first Christmas here in our new house and Wizby had some new spots to explore. The kids were worried he wouldn't know where to find us so Easton sent an email to Santa with our new address asking him to please let Wizby know our new whereabouts. He must've shared because the day after Thanksgiving, Wizby showed up in Dalton's room with a new small tree and a Bing map with our new house circled on it. (The boys used to share a room--and a small tree--but now they all have their own rooms and "needed" a 3rd tree.)



The next day he was already tricky to find. Eventually we discovered him in the pantry with some elf pals:



Ah, back in the day when we used to eat all sorts of processed things. Our pantry looks much different now, actually.

One morning the kids awoke to find him sleeping in their bathtub in Autumn's sleeping bag!

He was snuggled up with some new seasonal "soft friends" for the kids:



Another morning we found him on the table near our front door sporting festive cups for each kid:


And bungee jumping with a Slinky from the light fixture over the stairs:



He pulled out the Angry Birds game and brought each kid a tiny Angry Bird ornament wearing Santa hats:


He must've enjoyed his bungee jumping night because he went for a little more thrill-seeking when he rolled himself down the stairs inside a roll of toilet paper:


We couldn't leave him there all day, however (the cat loves toilet paper), but rules are rules and NO ONE is allowed to touch an elf, lest he lose his magic. So, Easton grabbed our "Elf Yourself" microphone from last season and changed his voice to "elf" to explain to Wizby that we'd be carefully lifting him up by touching the toilet paper and Easton didn't want him to panic:


One morning he was hanging out happily in the car:


And he'd drawn a self portrait on Dalton's dry erase easel....not too shabby for drawing in the dark, eh? ;)


On the day of our housewarming party, Wizby must've known it would be risky to be out and about with all the guests milling about. We found him tucked away in the master bathroom napping in a box of Kleenex:



And once we were done showing off our new house, he showed up with Santa hat chair covers sitting in a poinsettia we received as a housewarming gift.


One Tuesday morning he showed up in the garage with a date!


You like his sport coat and how he's parked right in between our cars? Rascal!


The following morning we found him sunbathing in Easton's room in a bikini!



Not only was he in beachwear, he'd changed the clothes each kid had laid out to swimming suits, flip flops and goggles!


Another day he'd brought a festive treat of Christmas Goldfish (awww, processed, artificially colored Goldfish, my kids sure miss you....) and wrote secret messages that later showed up as "bruises" on our bananas:


He knocked the star off the top of our Christmas tree and replaced it with himself!


I guess some fellas didn't like that idea much....they held Wizby hostage!




Super hero Green Lantern was trying to free him, it seems:


The next morning we'd discovered all those "bad guys" were tied up themselves:


And Wizby and his rescuer were taking it easy in a Crock Pot hot tub with a few lovely ladies:


The following day he was in the master bathtub on a boat:


He'd brought some sponge capsules for fun!


Oooh, turns out they were Christmas shaped:


He spelled out some advice with M&M's (awwww, we miss you too, M&M's!):


And he brought some wintery mirror clings for the powder room:


He gift wrapped the clothes the kids had set out for the next morning! Oh, Wizby....


He disguised himself as a wise man with a candy cane staff and came to see the Baby Jesus:


He lined up with the nutcracker collection but brought some Christmasy puzzles for each kid:


The kids woke up for church with red (ish) Rudolph noses!


Wizby!!!

At least he was sporting a rosy nosey too:


I was sleeping in that morning, I have no idea how the kids discovered their red noses. Oh well.


He perched in our ornament wreath listening to Easton's "Son of Neptune" Audio book one day:


He brought each kid their very own snowglobe for their rooms which is great because they are always trying to steal mine:


He brought a fun Charlie Brown Christmas book with fun sounds:


And gave each kid a "grow your own crystals" kit with a snowy theme:


He dressed like firefighter Barbie and sat in a vintage firetruck in the laundry room:


One of his less inspired evenings, he posed in the missing vertical blind hole.

(We hate those things but still haven't decided what to do instead...ugh!)

Poor guy only ever gets to see Christmas decorations. We discovered he'd pulled out some Halloween décor and was dressed as a ghost!



And on his final night leading to Christmas Eve he crepe papered the kids' doors:





Of course that was the night that Dalton threw up a time or two (can't remember at this point) and mama had to hurdle the papers to get to him. Ugh! But this way works too:


And there you have the 2012 elfin' season. With less than 5 months to go, I hope he's already making more plans for 2013.

(Thanks for stopping by!)